The fair being held for the first time in the country's capital will be the greatest promotional event of the industry in the current century providing the biggest ever meeting place for seafood producers, processors and exporters with importers and processing machinery manufacturers from across the globe.

Indian exporters and promotional agencies participating in the fair plan to recapture the lost markets and impress upon the major importers about the massive quality upgradation measures being undertaken by the Indian seafood industry as per the stringent norms prescribed by the importing nations mainly European Union and the US.

The exporters hope that these promotional efforts would take Indian seafood exports from the present level of 3.85 lakh tonnes valued at Rs 1.3 billion dollars(Rs 4700 crore) to three billion dollars (Rs 10,000 crore) in the very first decade of the emerging century, according to the marine product export development authority (MPEDA).

MPEDA sources here said about 100 exhibitors were expected to display the state of the art processing equipment at the fair targeting the over 400 seafood processing plants of the country especially as these units were being modernised fast in the wake of the latest quality specifications of the European Union and the US.

India is one of the largest exporters of shrimp in the world and shrimp accounts for as much as 67 per cent of the Indian seafood exports. Fin fish, cuttlefish and squid accounts for 15.5 per cent, seven per cent and six per cent respectively.

The various business sessions of the fair will be attended by experts from US, Netherlands, Italy , Canada, Israel and India. Participants at the fair also include delegates from European Union, South africa and West Asia making it one of biggest seafood fairs inAsia.

The event being organised at the Pragati Maidan will be inaugurated by union minister for commerce N Ramakrishna Hegde and the union minister of state for agriculture Som Pal will preside.